The Jacobs Medical Center is the biggest project on UCSD's five-year capital facilities list. The $663.8 million, 470,000-square-foot project in the east campus zone is projected to be completed by December 2016. — Cannon Design

The Jacobs Medical Center is the biggest project on UCSD's five-year capital facilities list. The $663.8 million, 470,000-square-foot project in the east campus zone is projected to be completed by December 2016.
/ Cannon Design

College construction in brief

More than 50 projects are under construction or planned to start by the end of 2012 at San Diego County’s public colleges and universities.

Total construction cost: $1.63 billion

Some highlights:

- Cal State San Marcos: $44 million for a new student union, starting spring 2012

- Grossmont Community College District: $39 million for Grossmont College remodels and expansions to Buildings 100 and 600.

- Palomar Community College District: $67 million for four projects at the San Marcos campus, including humanities and industrial technology buildings and a theater expansion; Fallbrook road construction in advance of North Education Center.

- San Diego Community College District: $650.2 million at numerous projects at City, Mesa and Miramar campuses and stand-alone facilities elsewhere. They include at City College, arts-humanities, math and science buildings; Mesa College, math-natural sciences and student services buildings; and Miramar, automotive tech center, library learning center, heavy-duty transportation center, and various service centers.

- San Diego State University: $100 million for Aztec Student Union to replace existing student center.

- Southwestern Community College District: $87 million for a six-building complex, field house and snack bar.

- University of California San Diego: $484.1 million for classroom, research and medical facilities and some student housing. Included are the second phase of the Rady School of Management; reconstruction of University House chancellor’s residence; and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography MESOM research lab for marine ecosystems work.

In this year’s continuing construction slump in which only a handful of new housing developments are under way and the commercial sector is nearly moribund, there’s one bright star — more than $1.6 billion in public college and university building projects under way with hundreds of millions more on tap for the next few years.

From Palomar College in the north to Southwestern College in the south, at San Diego State and UC San Diego, cranes are towering over quads as new buildings rise on former parking lots and ‘60s-era structures give way to high-tech, low-energy-using, architecturally innovative projects.

“I think it’s extraordinarily fortunate to have an influx of work in both the community college and university sector,” said Boone Hellmann, UCSD vice chancellor for facilities, design and construction. “I’ve had contractors over the past two years tell me we’ve been a stalwart in the community in keeping local business operations in existence.”

By one calculation, workers on local higher-education projects will represent about 10 percent of all 53,700 construction jobs in the county, according to May figures. And that doesn’t take into account the architects, engineers and other professionals on the jobs.

UCSD’s current five-year capital improvement program totals $2.1 billion with $478 million currently under way. They range from a remodel at Revelle College’s 1960s dorms to the $663.8 million Jacobs Medical Center east of Interstate 5, now in design.

Little of UCSD’s building budget, or that of any other institution of higher education, is coming from the state budget, the traditional source of capital funding. Instead, overhead charges that accompany research grants, plus donations, pay cover many research and health care projects. Student fees cover dorms and student service and recreation buildings; parking fees finance garages.